Resolve
by Avis Mala
Summary: There wasn’t a day Detective Gumshoe wouldn’t find some kind of reason to come to Edgeworth’s office. Gumshoe x Edgeworth oneshot.


Miles Edgeworth could tell who his visitor was only by hearing the over-excited knock on his door. He rubbed his temples, preparing for yet another detective-shaped hurricane to sweep through his office.

"I brought you the report you asked for, Mr. Edgeworth, sir!"

There he was again, the size of a bear in the doorway, huffing with excitement and mouth curled into the widest of grins. There wasn't a day Detective Gumshoe wouldn't find some kind of reason to come to Edgeworth's office and if there were no reports to be delivered or some information needed to pass from P.D. to the prosecutor's office or vice versa, he would always find some reason to invite himself over. Most of the time Detective made use of himself and Edgeworth couldn't deny he wasn't satisfied when Gumshoe got him tea or lunch from the cafeteria downstairs or when he arranged his extensive library of case-related files into a near-perfect alphabetical order.

There was a downside to it, of course, since most of the time Edgeworth preferred to work without a certain someone babbling on about the most tiresome of topics right next to him. Especially not the certain someone who was a bit slow on the uptake and had chronic verbal diarrhoea.

Then again, sometimes even Detective Gumshoe knew when to shut up and that's when Edgeworth couldn't complain. Not even if he wanted to.

"Thank you, Detective," he said with a tired smile and took the files from Gumshoe, who had moved up to Edgeworth's desk with a few lengthy steps. He remained standing there next to the Prosecutor's desk, hands in his trench coat's pockets, looking perfectly comfortable and letting his gaze sweep over the huge bookshelf that covered one of Edgeworth's office's walls. He didn't make a move to leave and right then, being busy with quite a tricky case, Edgeworth would rather not have anyone just loitering around and bothering him.

"Detective?"

Gumshoe's head snapped back to face Edgeworth and he grinned cautiously. "Yeah?"

"Shouldn't you be getting back to precinct?"

Gumshoe's grin faltered and turned into a frown. "Well, yeah …" he started and scratched his neck, looking awkward. "But I was thinking if there was anything I could help you with, y'know … I could get you tea!"

Edgeworth sighed. "I appreciate your trying to help, Detective, but I'm rather busy here."

"Aw, shucks, pal," Gumshoe replied, looking disappointed and starting to slowly move towards the door. "I guess it can't be helped, then. I'll see you later, sir."

Edgeworth watched Gumshoe taking his sweet time walking to the door dragging his feet, his broad shoulders slumped. The man was certainly on a league of his own. He even had the nerve to put on that cursed puppy-dog-eyed look, even though Edgeworth couldn't be quite sure if the man was doing it on purpose or was the look perfectly unintentional.

Knowing Gumshoe it was probably the latter.

Edgeworth sighed again and rubbed his temples. He was going to regret it, but for some reason he couldn't stand watching Gumshoe put on his poor kicked puppy act. "Are there any specific duties you've been assigned to this afternoon, Detective?" he asked, regretting his decision already.

"No, sir!" Gumshoe announced from the doorway, spinning around at the speed of light to face Edgeworth.

"So make yourself useful and get me some tea."

"Yes, sir!"

Then he was gone and Edgeworth took a deep breath, rubbing his temples again. He felt headache rising. He had been devoured by his paperwork ever since he came to the office that morning and hours after hours of staring at tiny letters would make anyone's head throb. The case was exceptionally tricky and there seemed to be no decisive evidence against the defendant. Lesser man would deem the case a total waste of time, but not Edgeworth. Edgeworth was going to find the evidence that would put that criminal where he belonged to, even if it meant wading through thousands of pages of dry legal babble.

Gumshoe was back in few minutes with Edgeworth's tea, practically shining with accomplishment. Edgeworth considered it a good thing that Detective Gumshoe was so easily pleased.

After getting his tea it took Edgeworth a couple of minutes to notice that Gumshoe was still in his office, poking at his chess pieces apparently in a lack of better things to do. Edgeworth had presumed Gumshoe would get lost once he had proven to be useful: he should've known better.

"Don't you seriously have anything better to do, Detective?" Edgeworth sighed, placing his pen and stack of papers down and looking at Gumshoe.

The detective grinned sheepishly in answer. "No," he replied, but continued hurriedly after seeing Edgeworth's unconvinced, demanding glare. "They actually drove me out today, said I needed to go make myself useful somewhere else."

"What happened?" Edgeworth queried.

"I kind of made a new theme song for Blue Badger. And I changed his dance," Gumshoe muttered, scratching his neck and looking humiliated. "They didn't like it."

For a second Edgeworth sympathised with the poor people down at the precinct.

"So, um. Please make me useful," Gumshoe continued, assuming his dangerous puppy-dog-eyed look. Edgeworth made a mental note to strive to become blind by maybe inserting a couple of teaspoons into his eyes. He hated having to fall victim of those goddamn compelling eyes over and over again.

"Just don't disturb me," Edgeworth said and continued the never-ending cycle of reading and underlining that had become oh, so familiar to him. He saw Gumshoe nodding his head excitedly. The silence lasted for maybe a minute.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Edgeworth, sir, but can I arrange your case files?"

"Didn't you do that the day before yesterday?"

"Did I?"

Edgeworth nodded, raising an eyebrow.

Gumshoe's shoulders slumped and he sighed. He thought for a second but apparently couldn't come up with anything else to do. "Can I still arrange them? I'm kinda sure I made a mistake or two back then."

"If it makes you happy," Edgeworth replied, already back in work.

For good fifteen minutes the office was wonderfully quiet, the only sounds being the soft shuffling Gumshoe caused while switching the places of case files on the bookshelf and the scratching of Edgeworth's pen against paper. Then the tiny letters on Edgeworth's papers started to form words that didn't make any sense and he had to lean back for a second to rest his eyes.

"Are you okay, Mr. Edgeworth?"

Edgeworth cracked his left eye open only to see Gumshoe standing next to his bookshelf with a stack of files on his arms, looking sheepish and worried.

"Just a bit tired," Edgeworth replied, wiping his eyes.

"Would you like a backrub?"

"Wha -?" Edgeworth began and then stopped to think about it. A relaxing backrub would actually be wonderful. He managed a tiny smile and told Gumshoe a backrub would be quite nice.

Gumshoe looked delighted again (if he had clapped his hands together it would've been a perfect excited schoolgirl imitation – except that Gumshoe was the size of maybe four little schoolgirls), placed the pile of files on the edge of the bookshelf and made his way behind Edgeworth's table. He placed his huge hands on Edgeworth's shoulders and started massaging softly.

It _was_ wonderful, Edgeworth admitted. Being slumped over his papers had really taken its toll on his back and shoulders and having someone strong yet gentle like Gumshoe rub them was almost _beyond_ wonderful. Divine would be hitting close.

"Better?" Gumshoe asked after a few minutes, patting his hands on Edgeworth's shoulders, forcing him to keep them relaxed.

"Yes, thank you, Detective."

Then a pair of strong arms wrapped around his shoulders and he could feel Gumshoe's cheek against his ear. His stubble tickled. _Cheeky bastard, disarming me with a wonderful backrub - !_

"Why are you always so cold?"

Detective's low voice so close to his ear made a chill shoot down Edgeworth's spine, but he didn't fight himself free like he usually did. It wasn't because he didn't like Gumshoe's utterly wanton acts of affection: most of the time they were at least tolerable, but he hated the fact how Gumshoe had the ability to render him completely defenceless. Remember: there were times he couldn't say no even if he wanted to.

Detective Gumshoe made him soft and Miles Edgeworth needed to be ruthless and on top of things, no exceptions.

"You make me confused," he replied after a while.

"Why?"

"You're so – so straightforward."

He could hear the disappointment in Gumshoe's voice. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's not like that," Edgeworth said silently. Sometimes he was just so lost with the man, Gumshoe being a straight to business kind of guy and Edgeworth had never been good with anything that took displaying feelings for granted. Feelings would just get in his way and cloud his judgment and if that were to happen in court he would definitely lose the case. "It's okay."

Gumshoe grunted something incomprehensible and fell silent. Edgeworth could feel Gumshoe's thumb brushing softly against his arm.

"Can I kiss you?"

Edgeworth sighed out of old habit. He hated hearing that particular question (because it made his heart throb), but it was far better than finding lips shoved against his without as much as a warning. After _that_ incident Detective Gumshoe had _always_ asked a permission first. Edgeworth presumed he hadn't appreciated losing a tooth. He was surprised that after all that Gumshoe still had the guts to try.

To think about it, Detective Gumshoe always acted as if he was walking on eggshells whenever he was with Edgeworth. It made him wonder if he really was that unpredictable. He was also bothered by the fact that Gumshoe seemed to be dead serious with him and – well, Edgeworth wasn't quite sure. Maybe he should think about it a bit more before something irreversible were to happen.

Detective Gumshoe kissed him, one large hand under his chin and the other one forcing him up from his chair and pulling him close.

"I'm busy, Detective," Edgeworth said, resisting half-heartedly just for the sake of it.

"Take a break," Gumshoe replied, breathless.

"I just did."

"Take another one," the detective said, his tongue curling around Edgeworth's earlobe and tearing a silent gasp out of the younger man.

Right there Edgeworth's objections met their end. Once Gumshoe pressed him down against his polished maple desk he didn't give a damn about irreversible. That's how strong the detective's resolve was.

Strong enough to sustain Edgeworth's as well.


End file.
